Monday, November 16, 2009

H1N1 Overblown

According to our chief public officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, the H1N1 is no worse than seasonal flu.

Although H1N1 is disproportionately infecting more children and otherwise healthy young adults "the mortality rate from this [H1N1] is no worse than seasonal flu," Dr. David Butler-Jones said in an interview with Canwest News Service.

"The individual risk of severe disease or dying if you happen to get the flu is very similar today as it was back in June. It's just that we're starting to see a lot more people affected," he said.

"The fact that we haven't had more deaths and more people in [intensive-care units] I think is a testimony to people doing the right things to both prevent and reduce the severity of disease," Dr. Butler-Jones said. People are following public health advice to cough and sneeze into their sleeves, stay home if they're sick and get on anti-virals if symptoms are worsening, he said.

"When you do take this disease seriously, you can actually dramatically reduce the number of people with severe illness and death," Dr. Butler-Jones said. "So the usual 2,000 to 8,000 range [of flu-related deaths] that we see with seasonal flu, we might actually be able to reduce that substantially."

The ones that really hyped this up and have overblown it is the media and some in the opposition. Hey, sensationalism and fear sells papers and drives up ratings. The opposition, they just want try and score political points. At that note looks like that is backfiring. Take a look at the polls.

7 comments:

I hope that this assessment is correct. No one in my extended family has been immunized to date. The only two, are a niece and nephew under the age of 3. My "boys" have no intention of getting the shot because of the disorganization and lineups. They do not want to waste a day waiting around. That first week was a pathetic exercise in poor planning and communications on how and why you should get the H1N1 shot. Cheers.

The minute I learned that the WHO had changed the definition of a pandemic to exclude the mortality rate component, I knew that this was just another U.N. attempt to suck money out of the western democracies to help fund another of their panic mongering agencies.Of course, the MSM blindly followed the lead of the U.N. which they revere as the closest thing to a godhead. Ditto for the politicians. Both of these entities are also the main propagandist mouthpieces for global warming.

I'm a computer geek, but my wife is a hospital director and I tend to defer to her knowledge & judgement in all healthcare issues (plus its good to stay married :-) ).The problem with this and all flus is that you are contagious before you may show symptoms, and although it may be mild for you,there's always the chance you'll pass it to someone who is highly susceptible.Its true, some precautions can decrease the probability of getting the flu, but not getting immunized is to me, the equivalent of running around and having unsafe sex. The odds of getting and passing on HIV are pretty slim, but its still very irresposible behaviour.The question to ask yourself is, if you don't get immunized, and you get the flu & infect a high risk person who subsequently dies - who is responsible?

That's why ONLY high risk persons and persons in close contact with those who can not get the shot (babies under 6 months)should get the shot anon, to protect themselves.The rest of us should just carry on, get the flu, not get the flu, what ever.If everyone gets the shot, there will be no natural immunity in the general population,and that is not a good thing.